Jessica Stein's Jennifer Westfeldt to hit Bernstein's Wonderful Town

BY Advocate.com Editors

September 19 2003 12:00 AM ET

Broadway has found its "Sister Eileen." Jennifer Westfeldt will play Eileen Sherwood, the winsome ingenue in the revival of Wonderful Town, opening on Broadway in November. Westfeldt is best known for playing the title character in the 2001 film Kissing Jessica Stein, which she cowrote. The musical, with a score by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green, is based on My Sister Eileen, a collection of short stories by Ruth McKinney that appeared in The New Yorker. They follow two young women from Ohio who arrive in New York during the Depression. In 1953, Wonderful Town was a big hit for Rosalind Russell. The revival, directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, stars Donna Murphy as older sister Ruth. Preview performances begin November 4 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, with an opening set for November 23.